Social Welfare: A History of the
American Response to Need 9e
Introduction: How to
Think About Social
Welfare’s Past and
Present
Chapter 1
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Introduction: How to Think about Social
Welfare’s Past (and Present)
Learning Outcomes
• Summarize the major factors that influence changes in social welfare
during a particular historical era
• Access the impact of welfare reform and health care reform on the
well-being of Americans
• Summarize the role of social movements in contemporary American
social controversies
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Why Do We Study SW History?
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Those who cannot remember the
past are condemned to repeat it
-George Santayana
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Introduction: How to Think About Social
Welfare’s Past and Present
• Challenges we face today echo problems that others have faced in the
past
– Repeating the same mistakes, running in cycle, knowing/learning
doesn’t mean doing
• Challenges today that are similar to past include:
– Limited resources, hostility to the poor and dependent, and the
ethical issues involved in intervening in the private lives of clients
• At the same time that the past can be a guide, it can also be a
straitjacket,
– (Guide) History allow us to understand the novelty of current
patterns of family life
– (Straitjacket) Health care system?
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Introduction: How to Think About Social
Welfare’s Past and Present
• SW programs involve a redistribution of resources from one group to
another
– (ex) Biden’s student loan forgiveness – fair? unfair?
• Our political culture often resist using government to redistribute
resources (ex. tax resistance), relying instead on the market (ex.
invisible hand) to carry out this function
• Historically, Americans have valued private assets over public goods
and individual autonomy over collective choices
• US has NOT been an equalitarian nation
– Is equality good? bad? neutral?
– Is it possible to make an absolute equality?
 Equality in opportunity
 Equality in outcome
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Introduction:
Government Role and Social Work
• Decisions about who should benefit from public policies often polarize
Americans
– Should we be more generous with programs for specific
population (ex. older people, children, or LGBTQ)? Why?
– Does providing aid to a group discourage independence or allow it
to flourish? – These issues were debated 200 years ago, just as
they are today
• Decisions about benefit levels and eligibility often communicate
whether a program is intended to invite or discourage participation
– Different intent of the programs
 (ex) Recipients, clients Vs. beneficiaries, consumers
 (ex) Welfare recipients are subject to behavioral requirements
(means test) that would be unthinkable for SS beneficiaries
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Introduction:
Government Role and Social Work
• Debate has occurred throughout history about the proper
role of federal, state, and local governments in funding and
administering programs
– What are some pros and cons of federal Vs. state
control of SW programs?
– Federal programs can assure equal treatment across
the country
– Local governments are more likely to understand the
needs of their local residents
– Professionals in private practice has played a central
role in providing services, while government has
provided funding
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Introduction:
Government Role and Social Work
• Tension exists btw SW as a “social” change
profession and SW as an “individual” adjustment
profession
– Social <-> Individual; Change <-> Adjustment
– SW practitioners have no choice but to address
BOTH social injustice (social change) and the
immediate needs of clients (individual
adjustment) = Dual Focus
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Introduction:
Family and Children
• Historically SW policy and pro-family policy were considered
essentially the same
– Why? Is this true currently?
• Battle over gender has become more contested in recent years
– Not only btw male and female, but also LGBTQ
– Do you think feminist movement is still needed in our society?
• Worthy Poor Vs. Unworthy Poor (by English Poor Laws)
– (Worthy poor ex.): the disabled and children
– (Unworthy poor ex.): the able bodied poor
– What factors should determine who is deemed worthy or unworthy
poor?
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Introduction:
Family and Children
• SW programs for the poor in 20th century support idea of
family being effective to the degree it maintains social
order and the economic viability of its individual members
• 20th Century was proclaimed Century of the Child. People
put more value on home and family life for children
– People believed that economics should not force
women to leave child care duties for work
– How about today?
• The 21st century began with one-fifth of US children living
in poverty
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Introduction:
Family and Children
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Introduction:
Women
• Until the middle of the 20th century, married women rarely
worked in the formal economy
• By the 1970’s, a majority of married women were working
– How has the changing status of women influenced SW
history and current times?
– Gained more budgets but it created a “caring gap” –
because women had less time to care for sick or
dependent members of society
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Introduction:
Government Roles
• Government financial capacity often has more influence than the needs of clients
on SW policy
– During the 18th-19th centuries, state and local Gov collected fewer taxes and
provided fewer services
– Federal Gov’s role in SW was limited to the well-being of veterans
• The economic crisis that began in 2007 challenged policy makers
– Gov should increase spending to stimulate the economy and increase the
budget deficit Vs. Gov should cut spending to balance government budgets
even if it prolongs the crisis
• Needs of the aging receive great attention in the US - why?
– In the late 19th century, special attention was paid to the needs of older white
men who were veterans
 Veterans have generally enjoyed better SW benefits than the general
population
– Increasing # of older people
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Introduction:
People of Color
• From the beginning of European colonization, white
invaders oppressed Native Americans
• Genocide remains an essential part of American history
• African Americans’ historical experience includes dual
oppression of color (racism) and class (poverty)
– Racism may cause poverty (or vice versa)
– But, historically, whites have often seen AAs’ poverty
not as a result of racism, but as proof of genetic
inferiority and cultural deficiencies (Culture of Poverty)
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Introduction:
People of Color
• America is a nation of immigrants
– America will be a “minority majority” nation by about 2043
• Anti-immigrant attitudes or nativism has existed in the US
– (ex) KKK, Neo-Nazi, Alt-Right
– Treatment of Native Americans is one example
– Has SW policy been effective in addressing the needs of people of
color?
– Is nativism still a prominent way of thinking in modern America?
• The entry of millions of new immigrants since the 1970s has provoked
two persistent reactions
– Immigrants enrich America
– Fear that they will steal jobs and dilute the “national character”
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Introduction:
Cultural Bias
• The impact of cultural bias
– Where have you seen the bias in history?
– How can we be biased against different groups of
people?
– Why do you think these biases exist?
– Do you think you could be biased?
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Introduction:
Economic Factors
• Economic growth is intimately connected to trends in SW
– As the nation became richer, SW programs usually expanded (ex.
Nordic countries)
– Association btw economic growth and morality (ex. public order
and security)
• Colonial period focus on stern treatment of the unproductive
– This, in turn, justified coercive alternatives to relief (ex. the
workhouse)
• New demands for living wage, an increased minimum wage, universal
affordable health care
– The federal minimum wage in 2023 = $7.25 ($15 by Biden?)
– Is increasing minimum wage beneficial to low-income earners?
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Introduction:
Economic Productivity
• There is a strong association btw economic
growth and increased SW service quality
• However, affluence does NOT automatically
translate into generosity
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Introduction:
Social Institution’s Effectiveness
• Residual (Selective) approach of SW
– Assumes that the array of other social institutions (ex.
families, social organizations, market economy) are
capable of meeting the needs of most people and
responsible for meeting their needs
– SW is a “stopgap” system that is relevant only when
the other institutions fail (small government)
– It may be not necessary to support the rich with the
limited resources
– Instead, it is more effective to support people in urgent
needs to deal with their issues with the limited
resources
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Introduction:
Social Institution’s Effectiveness
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Introduction:
Social Institution’s Effectiveness
• Institutional (Universal) approach
– Based on the belief that we live in an interdependent
society
– Making provisions for those who are subject to the risk
of modern life in the name of social solidarity (ex. car
insurance)
 Are you willing to pay more tax for better welfare
benefits?
– Universal benefits and services available to everyone
as a right, or at least to whole categories of people (ex.
children, old people)
• Which one do you prefer and why?
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Introduction:
Human Nature
• Views of human nature influence the response to human needs
– Diverse perspectives on “Why are poor people poor?”
– What’s your answer for the question?
– What’s your response to the poor population?
• A belief in the superiority of any group becomes a basis of discrimination and
exploitation (ex. Melting Pot? Salad Bowl?)
• In the 19th century, view of “Friendly Visitors” (Charity Organization Society) on
dependency
– To uncover the dishonesty and deviant behaviors of the poor and to
enlighten them
– Pauperism was seen as a disease to be eradicated
• Settlement House movement
– They believed that poverty results from the denial of opportunity
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Introduction:
Human Nature
• Welfare Reform from the 1960s through the 1990s underlines the value conflicts that
run through SW policy
– In the 1970s, work-based welfare reform proposals was rejected - why?
 (Liberals) They believed that the support levels were too low and that the work
requirement was punitive
 (Conservatives) They did not like expansion of public assistance
• Success of conservative welfare reform during the 1980s and 1990s ended efforts to
balance support for the work ethic and a decent standard of living to even our poorest
citizens
• By 1996, government used punitive regulations to prevent millions of eligible families
from even applying for aid
•
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996
(PRWORA) – Major welfare reform
– AFDC -> TANF
– Block grant
– Under PRWORA most immigrants are denied welfare-related benefits
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Introduction:
Past Decisions about Policy
• Previous policy decisions cast a long shadow on
contemporary SW policy
– The creation of the SS system during the 1930s
influenced almost all decisions about policy for the
aged that followed
– The failure to include health care in the original SS
system allowed the health care field to dominated by
private, often for-profit hospitals, insurance companied,
and providers
 This is one of the biggest mistakes in the US policy
history
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